“We’ve been experimenting with pizza at home recently. The dough is adapted from a Roberta’s recipe[footnote]Roberta’s is an extremely popular pizza restaurant in Brooklyn [/footnote] – it’s the best one we’ve found – but we’ve improvised the topping. If you make your own dough and tomato sauce from scratch, it’s already light years better than most pizzas you’d get out in restaurants.”
– Josh Fontaine & Alison Reid, bar-owner & creative director, Paris
Makes two 12-inch pizzas
INGREDIENTS
Dough:
153g “00” flour
153g all-purpose flour
1 tsp fine sea salt
¾ tsp active dry yeast
200g lukewarm water
1 tsp extra-virgin olive oil
Tomato sauce:
1 tin of whole peeled tomatoes
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
A pinch of sugar (optional)
Squeeze of lemon (optional)
2 red chillies, finely chopped (optional)
Salt and pepper
Toppings:
250g buffalo mozzarella, torn into medium pieces
Pecorino, grated (optional)
A few leaves of basil
Extra virgin olive oil
METHOD
It’s best to make your dough the night before so it has time to prove. Mix the flours together with the salt in a large mixing bowl. In a separate bowl, stir together the lukewarm water, yeast and olive oil, then add it to the flour mixture.
Knead the rested dough for 3 minutes. Let it rest for a few minutes, then knead it again. Cut into 2 equal pieces and shape each into a ball. Place on a floured surface, cover with a dampened cloth, and leave for 8 to 24 hours in the refrigerator. Remove 30 to 45 minutes before you begin to shape it.
Get your oven as hot as possible and heat a pizza stone if you have one.
Put the tomatoes through a food processor. Mix in the chopped garlic and salt and pepper to taste. Add sugar and lemon if needed to bring out the best tomato flavour.
Place the dough balls on a heavily floured surface and stretch them out as thinly as possible with your fingers.
Spread a thin layer of tomato sauce over the pizza, leaving some space around the edges for the crust to rise, and dot the mozzarella over the sauce. Bake until the crust has browned. This will take about 5 to 15 minutes, depending on how hot your oven is.
Top with basil leaves, a glug of olive oil and some grated pecorino if you have it. Slice and serve hot.
*This recipe is adapted, in part, from the Roberta’s dough recipe published in the New York Times on 8 April 2014
LISTEN: Josh’s “Music To Make Pizza To” mix